yes, of course! the purpose of a journal is to remember dreams better. if you don't have any problems remembering your dreams, there is no need for such a thing.lucid dreaming therefore is not dependent on writing down your dreams - but it helps (for example when it comes to finding out your personal dream-signs)

hope this helped!

☺ nice, you are a curious one! come, follow me into the rabbit hole if you want to: http://lost-and-fun.tumblr. com/

Nope it's not essential, though I would recommend it if you are having trouble remembering dreams. The whole meaning for a dream journal is to increase awareness in a dream, and if you don't remember anything, the chances of you remembering dream signs which can literally make you lucid within seconds decreases.

So yes, using a dream journal helps though is not essential for lucid dreaming, I personally only used one for around 2-3 weeks and now can view dreams more vividly, and my perceptions of things in dreams are not decreasing after stopping though increasing once I used a dream journal (if that makes sense to you).